The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

22 NOVEMBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the last election, the two major party candidates spent a combined total of more than a billion dollars, an unprec- edented amount. Each disclosed that he had more than 500 people who bundled amounts greater than $50,000, with many of them gathering in half a million dollars or more. This election year, it would not be surprising if election spending doubled, thanks to the Supreme Court. In its 2010 Citizens United decision, the conser- vative majority on the court decided that corporations are people and that negative attack ads are free speech that should not be constrained. As a result, corporate CEOs, billionaires and anyone else who wants to can pour unlimited selling of ambassadorships is just too lucrative, and election bids too expen- sive, for this source of campaign funds to be given up. In addition, when it comes to patron- age jobs as a reward to loyal followers, even the most powerful man in the world has limited options. So he (or, someday, she) is not going to constrain them further. Not all political appointee ambassadors are big donors, but most have either given or bundled large amounts. amounts of money into groups that engage in such tactics, and they can do so anonymously. President Eisenhower warned us against the military-industrial complex. With political campaigns having become a multibillion-dollar business, there is now an electoral-industrial complex that will ensure that their business remains protected and nontransparent. The